Clarence Kummer

Clarence Kummer


Riding Career:
1916 - 1928
Birth Date:
8/8/99
Death Date:
12/18/30
Hall of Fame:
1972
Career Mounts:
2468
Career Wins:
464 (18.8%)



Significant Mounts
Chance Play, Coventry, Exterminator, Man o' War, Sarazen, Sir Barton, St. James, Vito, Zev



Major Race Wins
Westchester Handicap (1919)
Belmont Stakes (1920, 1928)
Jockey Club Gold Cup (1920)
Preakness Stakes (1920, 1925)
Dwyer Stakes (1920)
Withers Stakes (1920, 1922)
Aqueduct Handicap (1920)
Stuyvesant Handicap (1920)
Saratoga Handicap (1920)
Jerome Handicap (1920)
Saranac Handicap (1920)
Manhattan Handicap (1920)
Tremont Stakes (1921, 1922)
Suburban Handicap (1921, 1927)
Carter Handicap (1921)
Toboggan Handicap (1921)
Demoiselle Stakes (1921)
Astoria Stakes (1921)
Hopeful Stakes (1922)
Adirondack Stakes (1922)
Maryland Handicap (1922)
Paumonok Handicap (1924)
Mount Vernon Handicap (1924)
International Special No.2 (1924)
Travers Stakes (1925)



Awards / Honors
United States Champion Jockey by Earnings (1920)
United States' Racing Hall of Fame (1972)

Clarence Kummer was a U.S. Racing Hall of Fame jockey who won four American Classic Races.

In early 1920, Kummer rode the 1919 Triple Crown Champion Sir Barton to a new Saratoga track record in winning the Saratoga Handicap. In May 1920 he was given the opportunity to ride Man o' War after Johnny Loftus retired. He rode the great horse to nine wins in nine starts. Kummer's successes in 1920 made him that year's top money-winning jockey in the United States.

Clarence Kummer won the Preakness and Belmont Stakes twice each and had four mounts in the Kentucky Derby with his best result a second place finish in 1923. In a relatively short career he won numerous important races, including the 1925 edition of the prestigious Travers Stakes, but by the end of the latter part of the 1920s constantly battled weight gains and was forced to retire after the 1928 racing season in which he had won his second Belmont Stakes. He then worked as an exercise rider for trainer Sunny Jim Fitzsimmons but was attempting a comeback in 1930 when he died from pneumonia believed to have been as a result of his weakened physical condition brought on by a harsh dieting regimen.

On December 1, 1921 Clarence Kummer married Marion Gascoyne. They had one daughter, Jacquelin. In 1932, his widow married another future Hall of Fame jockey, Earl Sande.

Clarence Kummer was inducted in the United States' Racing Hall of Fame in 1972.

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